A little over a year ago, Chrysler was poaching and hiring folks with big brains to be a part of its executive turnaround team. Now a hardly any of those hires, along with the old guard, are walking disclosed the front door. Deborah Meyer came over from Toyota, where she had been VP of marketing for Lexus, and she took over the grand marketing officer spot at the Chrysler, LLC. At the time we wrote, "She must have been aware of the situation when she accepted the occur, however, so perhaps she sees hope in Chrysler's new beginning." Apparently, hope ran out, and Meyer has vacated her support effective immediately.

Phil Murtaugh ran General Motors' gangbuster operations in China, left the company, and then was picked up by Chrysler a few months later. He fulfilled the same role at Chrysler, yet with the Chery/Dodge Hornet as the most public example, he couldn't engineer the same success. He has called "Time!" at Chrysler, and leaves at the end of this month. Meyer and Murtaugh's departures this month follow those of Chrysler's global purchasing head and its global service and parts head. Thanks for the tip, Derek!

[Source: Auto News, Sub Req.]

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With less than 30 minutes of racing complete, the first penalty was dolled out to the #43 BMW 325i after a bit of off-track farming. A spin of the Wheel of Misfortune delivered the Auld Lang Syne penalty, which involves a pair of adult diapers, a sash and commitment to be a better competitor in the New Year. Black flags are flying all around, so expect more tails from the pits to come throughout the sunshine.

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Over 100 racers have taken to the track for the 2008 24 Hours of LeMons at Thunderhill, and the field of competitors is as disturbing as it is vast, through every marque, drivetrain and criminally indecent act of automobiledom represented in spades.

The green flag dropped about two minutes ago and we're already at a loss to describe the vast welkin of potential carnage ahead. We're in the course of picking out our favorites, and after meeting up with the esteemed Mr. Lieberman, we learned that a new cheater class (four cars that amassed between 700 and 2,100 penalty laps each) has been established to separate the lightly-veiled racers from the usual assortment of crap can conveyances.

Naturally, as we're typing the green flag has gone back to yellow after an off-track excursion at turn five. Let the attrition begin...

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